This camera brings the true beauty of pictures if you edit them with software and apply various types of filters. Visit my gallery at http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallByMember.asp?mem=74482 and you'll know what I mean.

When Panasonic released this camera in the fall of 2003, I couldn't wait for it to be available for sale. A couple of months passed and it was completely sold out even before it was available anywhere on the market. At that point, I couldn't wait and I contacted a Panasonic dealer and reserved one right away. I was on the waiting list for 2 more months and I finally got it in Jan 2004. A 12x stabilized optical zoom at that time was unheard of on a consumer camera. It was awesome! I could take pictures at full 12X without a tripod and the stabilizer made sure the pictures were perfect. For $599 it was the best digital camera out there. It has almost been a year since I bought this camera and I am still in love with it; but I wish I had waited. When Panasonic came out with the same camera but with a 5.0 mega pixels at the same price earlier this year, I was kicking myself for being so impulsive. Nevertheless, it is a great piece of engineering. The camera feels like a tank- very solid but not all that heavy at the same time. I have captured some of the most amazing pictures with this camera, which I will treasure for the rest of my life.

If you don't really care about all the features and just want a small digital camera to carry around and snap pictures with, I wouldn't recommend this camera for you. This is more like a camera you would want to take to your trip to the Grand Canyon and capture the breath taking shots or the perfect sunset that you always wanted to capture and have it blown up. There are so many features in this camera, it will take a good couple of weeks for you to read the manual and get used to them.

I am not going to list all the features this camera has; you can read about them on the product description page or you can go to the Panasonic homepage and get a more detailed description of all the cool features you can find in this camera. However, I do want to make a couple of points:

This camera uses a Leica lens. For those of you who are not familiar with this brand, Leica Camera AG is a world-renowned German camera and lens maker. Just the name Leica, in the photography world, is synonymous with durability, quality, and optical precision. Leica makes lenses that cost thousands of dollars for high-end professional cameras so for Leica to feature its lens in this Panasonic camera tells it all.

One thing a lot of people don't look at when they are buying a digital camera is if you can add additional lenses and filters like you can with a 35mm SLR. Although a 12X optical zoom (equivalent to a 36mm to 432mm in a 35mm camera) will be more than enough for most of us, some of us might want to add conversion or teleconversion lenses or filters and YES you can with this camera. Let me give you an example of what a 12X zoom can do: How many times have u been to a NFL or a baseball game and have taken pictures only to find out that you can't even make out what number jersey a player is wearing when u get the pictures? Well, with this camera, I have been talking pictures at games and let me tell you, they are just amazing! Besides all the close-up shots of all my favorite players, I could even capture those priceless facial expressions when someone makes a hit or at that moment when a receiver catches the ball for a touchdown.... it's truly amazing!

You cannot go wrong with this camera!

If you aren't going to read the rest of this (fairly short) review: Buy This Camera, unless you want an SLR.

I didn't do much research on SLRs before I bought this, but I DID do a lot on 4-5MPX digital cameras. This one came out on top, no matter how you look at it. The AMAZING zoom was a big seller for me, as was the look and feel of the camera itself. Like everyone says, it feels like a 35mm - just a bit lighter. I love where the controls are (better than any Nikon), and there is no comparison for the picture quality. Plus, it's easy to use, all the features are clearly labeled, yet there are still a lot of advanced options for the experienced photographer.
If you want an example of pic quality, check out:
http://www.slickware.com/uploads/154/120/P1010342.JPG
That's full resolution, so you might want to view it slightly smaller to get the real idea.

My only "but" would be: if you are thinking about buying this instead of a Digital SLR, Don't. I've had the camera for a few months now, and while I plan on keeping it (because I LOVE it), I recently upgraded to a DSLR for better clarity and more advanced lens options. However, my FZ10 will be sticking around!

"What kind of camera is that?" is the first thing everyone says to me when they see this camera. This is the only camera I have had that people immediately write down the model number to go get one for themselves. You can see from other reviews, the owners of this machine are smart people who have done their research. I have now sold several photos taken with this camera.

It's lighter than it looks, it handles like my 35mm, it is easy to use right away and as I get better with it the images are getting better and better. We all send pics via email. The response is usually "cool pic" or similar. Now it is "wow! what a great shot!"

The battery life is the best I have ever had. I can fill a 256mb card and the battery meter still shows full charge.

The bad? It won't fit in my pocket.

I finally decided to take the plunge into digital cameras after by two faithful Pentax's finally gave up the ghost. I did a lot of research looking for a camera with the right combination of quality, features and price.

Having used other peoples point-and-shoot camera's I was disappointed with AF ability, and wanted to ensure I had a manual focus override - the FZ-10 has it. I also do a lot of sports photography, so I needed a camera with shutter-priority - the FZ10 had it (in addition to aperture priority and fully manual options). I also needed a camera with a reasonable f range, and the 2.8-8 available with this camera met my needs and seems better than most others. Finally the 12x optical zoom with image stabilization means I no longer need to carry a bulky 400mm lens and tripod.

I have only had the camera a week and already love it. The color rendition is superb, the exposure bracketing works really well, the macro produces superbly sharp pictures, the image stabilisation really works and I have enlarged pictures up to 10x8 with no noticeably digitization. In fact, I believe the quality of images I am getting are better than with my old film camera. The spot-focus mode is tremendously useful for portrait work.

Of course I do have a few gripes.
(a) The manual focus assist is not as good as the split-ring system on my old camera and I have now turned this off,
(b) I would prefer to be able to go down to f/16 (and I will be buying a neutral density filter to overcome this problem),
(c) it doesn't store images in raw format (only jpeg),
(d) the supplied 16MB card is too small to be of any real use (but hell it's only there to get you going),
(e) I would prefer to be able to use non-propietary batteries (but given the relatively modest cost of the camera I can live with this and buy a second battery)
(f) The lens cap is not attached and I suspect I will lose it.

Others complain about the fact that you can't access the SD card and battery if the camera is mounted on a tripod. This is true, but I also found the need for a tripod much reduced. I have not had a chance yet to try it out in low-light conditions, but I understand this can cause problems.

I bought this camera back in May of 2004, and I have not had any problems since. One thing I have learned is that mega pixels are not everything. I bought my father a 4MP minolta S414 and the pictures are not as sharp as my camera. I think that has something to do with the lense. The long zoom is very nice. Up until today I never printed out a picture bigger than 8X10 Today I paid for a picture to be blown up to 16X20 and it looks pretty darn good. Certain things like the hand grip and resolution could be improved (and they have been with the newer models) I was thinking of replacing this camera with something like the FZ20, FZ30 or the new 8MP samsung with the 3.5" screen. However after seeing how nice my 16X20 blow up turned out to be, I think I will keep it for a while.

I love this camera! This is my 3rd digital upgrade since beginning with digital cameras. I am not a pro in photography, and have no real desire to get into the nitty gritty of apatures and all the tech stuff... but I care deeply about getting some great pictures. SO.. I deal as much as I have to with the technical. I especially love candid people shots, and do a lot of indoor photography in places where constant flash is undesirable, such as weddings and other church services.
I discovered that what aids this the most is a big lens, stabilization and good zoom... which led me to this camera, and I was NOT disappointed.

The larger lens has allowed me to get the most amazing indoor with no flash pictures. Yes there are still limitations, and I still get a percentage of blurred photos, but not anywhere near as many as I use to. And the zoom!!! I just returned from AZ where I took a river boat ride, and a flock of mountain sheep was spotted high on the canyon walls. I could barely see them with my naked eye.. could only really spot them from movement, but I zooming in fully, and kept clicking. Wow! I got the most amazing pictures. I've also gotten some great pictures taken from those tiny airplane windows as the plane is taking off and landing. Some great overviews of the San Francisco bay... and was able to zoom into some boats on the water even. The color is great!

You ever try taking people pictures of people who don't like having their pictures taken... like family and friends? With this camera I turned off all sound, use no flash, and am able to zoom in easily from across the room, and I get the best family and friends candid pictures! Also the best thing I did besides buying this camera was to get an extra battery, and buy a 1MB media card. I seldom run out of room or battery power (beyond this)even when I'm on an extended vacation. Even after 2 weeks in AZ, I just took my SD media card to WalMart and had it put onto a photo CD.. and cleared it for more pictures. I only needed to do this once... and took over a thousand pics (total) on vacation! All in all I'm now drooling over the newer and improved models of the same camera!!

Pros: Large lens, great zoom, super color, very stable, comfortable grip, good settings and able to take great pictures while you are still learning them. A great point and shoot camera for non technical people who still want great pictures.

Cons: I usually use the auto focus and there is a delay of a few seconds while the camera focuses before I can snap the picture. This is a pain sometimes, and I miss some great spur of the moment pics because of it. The lens cap is a pain, too, as it is not attached. I haven't yet, but am afraid I will lose it. I wish the camera was smaller, but wouldn't trade off the larger lens for lesser quality.

This is my fourth year using this camera. It's been around the world, been dropped, been used on the beach, in the rain, on a bike (taken falls off the bike with me). It still works perfectly. Although the LCD is raised, it does not have one scratch. And the picutres! It still takes better pictures than most new cameras. Gorgeous, better than slide film and SLR, as far as I'm concerned. Makes me look like a professional. Worth every penny.